Now that I have seen the episodes, I can give my honest opinion of how I feel about it. A great deal of my "verdict" has to do with the fact that I inevitably must compare it to the book, so if you haven't read the books, you might have a completely different take on it. Also, if you haven't read the books, you might want to avert your eyes, since this is going to be a massive spoiler right here..
Since I want to finish off on a happy note, I'll start with the things I didn't like:
The Cons/Massive Thumbs Down/What the fV%k?:
1) The start of the series takes place in Faery. This is just weird. It gets even weirder when Sookie sees Bellboy Barry and then her Grandfather, neither of which are supposed to be fairies (in the books, she isn't even related to her "grandfather"). Then it gets even WEIRDER when all the beautiful fairies become ugly evil monsters that look like they've stepped out of Middle Earth after fighting against the fellowship of the ring... what the? The books do have a fairy war much later in the series, and there is a "good" and "evil" side to the fairies, but they are all super beautiful and they don't shoot fire balls out of their hands. The whole first 10 minutes of the season was just bizarre and disappointing.
2) The supporting characters' lives have all gone to shit - Tara is a lesbian cage fighter in New Orleans, Sam is hanging out with a bunch of random shifters in some sort of swingers/nudist club, Tommy has become a Christian and has been "adopted" by Maxine Fortenberry, Jessica now lives with Hoyt and they seem to have a pretty crap time dealing with domestic life together, and Arlene has an adorable baby that she thinks is possessed by her dead ex-fiance, which is the most disturbing thing I've seen on this show to be honest! I'm just expecting her to go all post-natal-depression any minute now, and try to kill this poor baby!
The other characters' lives have also massively changed, but more of that later (in the "Pros" section). Aside from the fact that these characters either don't exist or are hardly mentioned in the books (Jessica and Tommy were made up by the TV show writers, and Tara is a very minor character in the book, particularly before Book #5, while Hoyt is hardly mentioned except in relation to being Jason's best friend), I just think that a lot of this stuff is over the top - they tried too hard to make it look like everything has changed, but why should it, if everything pretty much stayed the same through the first 3 seasons?
3) Eric has bought Sookie's house and is a total bastard about it. I just don't like this direction. Eric is a bit of a bastard, naturally, but he's subtle about it, and he's never tried to force himself like this onto Sookie (firstly because he doesn't care about humans that much, even Sookie - yet, and secondly, he's way too cool to be acting so desperate), either in the books or in the TV show. I just don't like this whole "I own your house, so I now own you" line.. As if someone like Eric would actually believe this nonsense? Also, Eric buying Sookie's house is just so predicible (of all people to have bought it).
4) The witches - uuuugh.... I understand that this was probably the only way they could work the witches into the plot, and they did start building up to it in the previous season with Danielle being a Wiccan and Jesus talking about magic and all that, but this whole "Marnie" Stonebrook business - what is the deal? Isn't she supposed to be a "baddy"? Because it looks to me like she's just an innocent old witch who seems to black out in some sort of possessed trance when she does all that freaky 'speaking-in-tongues' thing? In the books, she is a V-juice junkie werewolf witch who is totally bad ass and is in love with Eric, and also wants to take over Eric's business. She also does not look like an old derelict cat lady. She's young and buff and androgynous. At least, that's how I imagine her. And she's powerful enough to use her magic without needing a bunch of book club looking followers to join hands around her in a circle.. When I compare the show to the books, I just feel really disappointed on this point, but if I hadn't read the books, this would be a total non-issue for me.
5) Portia. Hmm.. I'm not sure where this is going, but it looks sort of like Portia and Bill have a flirtatious thing going on.. which is plain gross, given that Bill should know full well by now that he is her great-great-great grandfather or something along those lines. Yuccccky. Also, Portia is supposed to be not very attractive, and she is supposed to hate vampires. The whole scene with her and Sookie and also with her and Bill exchanging looks just rubs me the wrong way.
6) Jessica - she is starting to bore me to death. Her and Hoyt, but especially Jessica. Booooring...... talk about a time filler.
Ok.. now to the good stuff..
The Pros/Massive Thumbs Up/HELL YES!!:
1) Bill Bill Bill. He is smoking hot. Hotter than ever. And he's the King of Louisiana - unexpected? Yes. Loving it? YES! Does it matter that in the books, Sophie Anne is still alive and still a powerful Queen while Eric is her underling, and Bill is even lower ranked than Eric? Not really (in fact, I don't like the Queen in the TV show anyway). Additionally, in the books, Bill shrinks away into this nerdy and deflated hired-help errand boy to the Queen, and its all quite unsexy to be honest.. Furthermore, he disappears for half the book while abroad, which would have been a big let down in the show. Instead, Bill's house has been converted into a swish fortress, he's looking really stylin, and while it's obvious that he still loves Sookie, he's so suave in his supposed detachment. Loved the sex scene with his "security" floozy as well, not to mention Sookie walking in on them getting dressed. So good! But my favourite part of Bill's new role is the flash back to punk-rock London, where Bill first encounters Nan. That was so good, I can't even explain why. Ps: Love Bill with eyeliner.
2) Pam & Eric - aside from the aforementioned "You are MINE SOOKIE" crap, I love the scene with Pam and Eric in Fangtasia, filming a vampy community announcement. They are just so cool and funny, without even trying. Pam is one of my fave characters, she is just so awesome. Love her. As for Eric, of course he is gorgeous, and there's not much else to say about that.. I'm very happy to see that at the end of episode 2, he has lost all his memory and the plot looks like its about to go in the right direction. All looking good from here on.. *fingers crossed* I just can't wait for that shower scene! They better include it in the show, or I'm going to have to write a very angry letter of complaint to the producers.
3) The whole "Sookie missing for a year" thing - I actually like it. I think its a great way to move on, particularly with Jason being a police officer (which I think is great!) and Bill being the King (which I think is genius!), and just generally helps to explain the whole plot changing so much. I don't like that Sookie doesn't own her house but I'll get over that (I'm going to make a prediction now that while Eric has amnesia, he gives Sookie her house back - you heard it here first Folks!).
4) Lafayette & Jesus - I'm liking that they are still together and that they're part of the Witch club. It just ties the witches in well with the rest of the plot and the other characters (never mind the fact that Lafayette actually gets killed at the start of Book #2 - rather than Miz Janet).
5) Hot Shot - Love it! (Although in the books, Hot Shot is not so dirty, and they aren't such rednecks). But I think the producers/writers of the show actually improved the plot over the book, by making Crystal part of Jason's abduction. It just makes a lot more sense than Felton doing it on his own to make Jason a "freak" so that Crystal wouldn't want him. Also in the book, while its more mysterious not knowing Jason's whereabouts, I'd feel pretty bummed if he was missing from the entire season of the show ;)
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